Detroit's grand bargain overshadowed by race-baiter

The opposition from Sen. Coleman A. Young II to the so-called grand bargain protecting the pensions of retired city workers, among other things, in the wake of Detroit’s unprecedented bankruptcy was little more than thinly veiled racism.

While Young, a Democrat whose political fame rests on him being the illegitimate son of the late Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, is no stranger to bombastic rhetoric, his 10-minute statement from the floor of the Senate explaining his ‘no’ vote on each and every bill in the nine-bill grand bargain crossed the line.

Had a (insert white here) Republican from the suburbs or the hinterlands came close to saying — or implying — anything that Young did, they would have been besieged with calls for their resignation.

Young could have respectfully criticized prolonged state oversight of city hall, but he didn’t.

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Take this particular line said by Young: “Once you let them in, they never leave.”

Whom is the “them” Young referred to? Of course, the “them” are the Michiganders who aren’t from Detroit and, as a result, are more likely than not white. In Young’s mind, you have no right to be involved in the saving of the city that literally and figuratively made America unless you live within the borders of Eight Mile Road.

By contrast, Sen. Tupac Hunter, another Detroit Democrat, was a statesman of the first order.

“This is one of those times when we are to be statesmen; not to try and score cheap — I underscore cheap — political points; not to take advantage of this opportunity to show off and perform for the cameras and for the media,” Hunter told colleagues.

Hunter is to be commended for speaking against, in his words, the “buffoonery” of Young.

Young’s rhetoric was disgraceful and grossly unbecoming. Worse yet, it perpetuates an unfortunate perception of those elected to political office in Michigan’s first city.

Young’s unabashed racism must be repudiated in the strongest of terms by both Democrats and Republicans.

He should also face serious repercussions from Sens. Randy Richardville and Gretchen Whitmer, the respective majority and minority leaders in the Senate, who could suspend Young from committee assignments and even cut funding to his office.

There is without a doubt a need for a substantive discussion on the very structure and system of governance for Detroit in the aftermath of the grand bargain. Clearly, city hall cannot be allowed to return to its old ways once the pressing concerns are resolved and bankruptcy proceedings come to an end.

Unfortunately, the discussion will have to occur without Young, whose own actions have proved him unfit as a voice for the constituents of his senatorial district.

And that’s too bad because sensible Detroit voices are needed now more than ever to answer serious questions about the way the city, including its schools, is governed.

Dennis Lennox is a columnist for The Morning Sun in Mt. Pleasant. Follow @dennislennox on Twitter.